U.S. consumers borrowed more in November to buy cars and attend school, but stayed cautious with their credit cards. The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that consumers increased their borrowing in November by $16 billion from October to a seasonally adjusted record of $2.77 trillion.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter Wednesday to congressional leaders that the department will use accounting measures to save approximately $200 billion, which could keep the government from reaching the limit for about two months.

With a nervous eye on the "fiscal cliff," the Federal Reserve is expected this week to announce a new bond-buying plan intended to further reduce long-term interest rates and encourage borrowing. If it succeeds, it might soften the blow from tax increases and spending cuts that will kick in in January if Congress can't reach a budget deal.

U.S. consumers swiped their credit cards more often in March and took out more loans to attend school, driving overall borrowing up by the most in more than a decade. Total consumer borrowing rose $21.4 billion in March, the Federal Reserve said Monday. That's the seventh straight monthly increase and the largest since November 2001.

Google's ex-CIO has moved from the world of Web searches to the world of high-interest, short-term lending. He says ZestCash.com offers an innovative way to help the poorest borrowers avoid financial emergencies. But is this just a slick veneer putting a shine on the classic payday lending business?

Two-year-old Pawngo bills itself as a more upscale pawnshop for the digital age, catering to a new breed of pawn customer -- not desperate, just temporarily cash-strapped. The company wants to dispel the stereotype of sketchy storefronts dealing in fenced goods -- and so far, it has had a fair amount of success.

If you need cash and have investments you don't want to sell, a stock-based loan may sound like a good idea. But the unregulated stock-based loan industry can be a risky way to tap into the value of your portfolio, warns the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Acquiring the money to get a dream off the ground is rarely easy, but it can be done ... if you're creative: Here's how some young short filmmakers at the Cannes Film Festival raised funds for their projects. Their methods might inspire you the next time you need to pull together big bucks to fulfill a dream.

A new report from the Center for Responsible Lending paints a seriously depressing picture of the damage the payday loan industry wreaks on its customers. What's worse is that the report actually understates the grim reality facing payday borrowers today.

For those who can't get bank loans, the new business of peer-to-peer lending can be a lifesaver. Internet companies connect people who need to borrow with individuals willing to lend to them directly -- for a fair profit, of course. Here's how it all works.

After two years of relative frugality caused by the financial crisis, Americans are again borrowing in a big way. Consumer spending is surely good for the economy, but have Americans learned any lessons about loading up on the red ink?

For years, policymakers have reassured the public that Social Security will be solvent for decades. But federal spending and income data from the Treasury reveals that Social Security is already deep in the red, with outlays exceeding payroll tax revenues by $76 billion in 2010 alone.

On Thursday night, venture capitalist and DailyFinance columnist Peter Cohan went on CNBC's "The Kudlow Report" to debate whether the banking industry is at the start of a period of recovery, as Goldman Sachs claimed this week. Here's why he argued that Goldman was dead wrong.

Hong Kong took a new step this week to let some air out of its real estate bubble, levying a heavy tax on property flippers -- a move that has already sent asking prices there downward. But Hong Kong's real estate risks are dwarfed by those in Mainland China.

A key index that measures small business lending rose 16% in September, its second consecutive month of double-digit increases. That rise in the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index is a strong signal that the U.S. economy is finally back on the road to recovery.